


Tonysitting (It's Not a Tough Job, but Someone Still has to Do it)

by MK_Yujji



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, accidental inebriation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-29
Updated: 2013-01-29
Packaged: 2017-11-27 11:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/661585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MK_Yujji/pseuds/MK_Yujji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony gets dosed with something in a fight, Steve takes the task of watching out for him until it's out of his system.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tonysitting (It's Not a Tough Job, but Someone Still has to Do it)

**Author's Note:**

> This was also written for _phoenixmetaphor_ for the cap_ironman holiday gift exchange, I just didn't get it finished in time.

“You are… so….” Tony waved an unsteady hand at Steve, a wide gesture that seemed meant to encompass the whole of him, from head to toe. “Soooo….you.”

Steve sighed and tilted the cup of water to Tony’s lips. “Thanks, I think. Come on, Tony. Bruce said it was important to keep you hydrated.”

He managed to get a little of the water down before Tony made a face and tried to pull away. “Water. Why, Steve? Whhhyyyy? Do you really hate me that much?”

“I don’t hate you at all, Tony,” Steve admitted softly, gratified by the way Tony leaned into his touch despite the words. “I’m keeping you hydrated.”

Tony pouted for a moment, but he’d stilled and let Steve tilt the cup again without protest. Steve couldn’t help but be relieved. 

His heart had nearly stopped when he’d seen Tony go down during the battle they'd found themselves in that afternoon.

Of all of them, Tony should have been the most protected from biological and chemical attacks, but something had gotten through his filtration systems and hit him hard enough that JARVIS had taken immediate control of the suit and gotten them out of the fight.

SHIELD had run dozens of tests, but they still weren’t sure what it was. Eventually, Bruce had declared that Tony was likely _not_ in danger of anything worse than dehydration and a spectacular hangover as long as they kept an eye on him.

Clint and Natasha had made a hasty exit, but Steve would have volunteered even if they hadn’t. He didn’t mind being around Tony when the man wasn’t actively trying to push all of his buttons. Besides - and he really thought Tony would appreciate the humor - taking Tonysitting duty had gotten him out of the messier clean up tasks that he knew Hill had been intending to assign after their debrief. 

He’d have to thank Coulson for the heads up the next time he saw the man.

“Steve.” 

“Hm?”

A hand flopped against his chest, smacking him a couple of times. “Steve. Steeeeeeve.”

Huffing softly in amusement, Steve sat the cup down and captured both of Tony’s hands. “Yes, Tony?”

“You don’t hate me?” There was something about the open vulnerability on Tony’s face that made Steve’s heart ache. This was not how his prickly friend should look. He was supposed to be all spiky humor and purposely biting references that made no sense to anyone who wasn’t around for the 80s and 90s.

There’d been flashes here and there, but Steve had never realized that the shakiness of their not-quite-friendship bothered the other man.

He didn’t think he was supposed to realize.

“No, Tony. I never hated you.” 

“Not even when I called you a barbie doll?”

“When-” He cut himself off and shook his head, helping Tony shift around so that they could settle more comfortably on the couch. He’d have preferred to put Tony to bed upstairs, but the man had worked himself into a state of franticness about needing to make sure his bots were okay. All of JARVIS and Steve’s attempts at reassuring him hadn’t helped until Tony could see them for himself. “No, Tony. Even when you called me a barbie doll.”

He hadn’t known about that, but it actually explained a couple of jokes he’d overheard Clint telling Natasha. He’d known they were at his expense - Clint was never malicious about it and his jokes were easier to laugh off than Tony’s were - but he hadn’t known where they’d originated from. 

In retrospect, he supposed that he should have realized they came from Tony.

“You know what barbies are, yeah?”

“I looked it up.”

He spent a lot of time looking up references that the others made. It’d be depressing, if he let it.

“Steeeeeve. Steve. Stevie?”

Steve snorted. Tony hadn’t said his actual given name so often in the entire time they’d known each other as he had so far under chemical influence. At least it proved he knew it? Sometimes Steve had wondered. “No one has called me Stevie since the serum.”

That wasn’t entirely true, but post-serum even Bucky had tended towards calling him Steve instead of the childhood diminutive. 

It still hurt to think about his lost friend, but it was a familiar ache, something that had become normal. 

Tony leaned away from him, peering at him with a look that might possibly have been critical or thoughtful if he hadn’t been so inebriated. Mostly, he just looked confused. “Nah, not really a Stevie, are you?”

“Tony, if it meant that you stopped calling me things like Capsicle and Spangles, I would absolutely be okay with you calling me Stevie.”

That sent the man off in cackling laughter. “Stevie. Steeeevie! Oh my g-god, Stevie!”

It really wasn’t that funny, but Steve couldn’t help but smile faintly when Tony collapsed against him, still shaking with giggles. Better amusement with a side of vulnerability than the other possibilities Bruce had outlined. Steve wasn’t sure he could have handled it as well if Tony had gone the mean or depressed routes. 

Tony’s usual prickly sarcasm was hard enough to handle sometimes. 

Brushing a hesitant hand through Tony’s hair, Steve berated himself for wishing that Tony was this easy all the time. 

It wasn’t right, wishing for something like that. In his right mind, Tony would be horrified that he’d behaved like this. 

Steve sighed and looked around the lab. He’d never been allowed in it before and he’d been careful to minimize what he’d touched. JARVIS had promised it was okay, but Steve really didn’t want Tony to sober up and have a reason to be pissed at him.

Two robots that JARVIS had introduced as You and Butterfingers had mostly kept their distance other than to whir in Tony’s general direction before heading back over to settle and power down in their corners. The third robot, Dummy, lingered. He whirred and beeped and hovered like a distraught child until Tony had cooed at it with affectionate insults.

Even then, it had refused to go far. It kept randomly handing Steve things. Some had been helpful - like the blanket he kept having to retuck around Tony whenever the drugged man started moving again. Others were just confusing. He wasn’t even sure what some of the things Dummy had brought over actually _were_. He desperately hoped that they weren’t important things that shouldn’t have been moved.

“We should…” Tony trailed off before smacking Steve in the face with one flailing hand. “Steve. Steeevie. We should watch a movie. JARVIS. Play us something. Something PG. Disney maybe. Ooohhh! That one with the artsy princess and her frying pan!”

He finally settled down and curled into Steve’s shoulder with a contented sigh and a soft murmur that Steve didn’t understand as something bright and colorful began playing along the opposite wall.

Dummy whirred and beeped again, a bottle of something green and chunky held in it’s metal paw. “Um, thanks.”

He expected the robot to dart off again, but this time it just moved around the couch and settled there, giving every appearance of watching the movie with them. One of Tony’s hands drifted upwards, patting the nearest bit of robot he could reach.

Steve smiled and let himself sink into the warmth and comfort of the moment, no past waiting to haunt him, no future preparing to ambush him.

For once, he felt like he was exactly where he was meant to be.

~*~*~  
 _end_

**Author's Note:**

> The Disney cartoon is _Tangled_ , in case that wasn't obvious. I think Steve could appreciate it. ^_^


End file.
